Warren Buffett – The Original Early Retiree?

Just read a on Warren Buffet’s early years, and almost spit out my coffee midway through.

Apparently at 25 years old he wanted to retire! And actually turned down a dream opportunity in order to do so!!

“The thing is, when I got out of college, I had $9,800, but by the end of 1955, I was up to $127,000. I thought, I’ll go back to Omaha, take some college classes, and read a lot—I was going to retire! I figured we could live on $12,000 a year, and off my $127,000 asset base, I could easily make that. I told my wife, “Compound interest guarantees I’m going to get rich.””

I feel like I had heard that before, but for some reason the “I was going to retire!” part escaped me. As well as the fact he was pretty confident screwing the 4% rule and trying to live off 10% of his assets, haha… But hey, he’s WARREN BUFFETT!

So what changed his fate?

“By pure accident, seven people, including a few of my relatives, said to me, “You used to sell stocks, and we want you to tell us what to do with our money.” I replied, “I’m not going to do that again, but I’ll form a partnership like Ben and Jerry had, and if you want to join me, you can.”

He set a few ground rules (mainly, no bitching about the ups and downs of the market) and before he knew it people out of the blue were sending him money to invest as well. This “partnership” formed what is now Berkshire Hathaway with $620 billion in assets with an annual

If you want a share in the company right now? $245,000. For ONE share. (“Class A” anyways, there’s now a “Class B” you can nab for $160.00 a pop – ).

The main thing he credits to the success? He was doing something he liked :) And 60 years later he’s still doing it!!

Now one wouldn’t naturally consider him “early retired”, what with him obviously still working and running a massive empire, but it was the freedom he gained through being financially independent that led him down this course in life. He doesn’t need all these extra billions of dollars he now has (he literally still coupons!!), but he chooses to spend his time on stuff that excites him.

And that’s the the part I admire the most. It’s not his businesses wizardry or his sharp mind, but the fact he got his personal finances in order which then set himself up to do whatever he wants in life. And at the age of 25 at that!

I highly encourage you to read this short piece on him – it’s really cool, especially as it’s in 1st person:

Here were two other notes I found interesting from it:

When he found a mentor to look up to (Benjamin Graham – famous investor and author of ), he did whatever it took to stay in his shadows for maximum learning!

He was perfectly content renting a house vs buying one. Stating to his wife, “I’d be glad to buy a house, but that’s like a carpenter selling his toolkit.” I didn’t want to use up my capital.” Not the exact reason I dislike home ownership myself, but still – I’ll take it :)

I’m thinking I may need to change my own mind on early retirement too… Screw blogging in my free time, anyone want to invest in the new J. Money Fund? Millions back guarantee, but no bitching if I lose it all!

Warren Buffett – The Original Early Retiree? was last modified: April 19th, 2017 by J. Money

What a cool story. Oh, the investment world would be so different if Warren Buffett were retired for the last 60+ years instead of being the greatest investor of all-time. The thing is, he is so frugal relative to his wealth; he hasn’t been working for the money for many, many years. In that sense, he is an early retiree, doing what he loves to do (a hobby almost). A hobby that he is very good at, and is very lucrative for him :)

He he, whatever works for you, is the way to go. I never invested in my life, but we’re doing very well with our small businesses. And, working 2-3 hours/day, means we’re almost retired and able to care for our 3 year old.

Wooow that’s pretty interesting that you’ve never invested before and are so close to retiring?? I have so many questions!! Haha… Have you written a post on this yet on your site? If not, want to write one for us? :)

Just to put things into perspective I found an inflation calculator to see what $127,000 in 1955 would be worth today. Apparently that’s the equivalent of roughly $1,134,000 as of 2015. I can’t even imagine having amassed $1.1 million by the time I was 25. And if I had I would plan on retiring as well. But power to him for finding something else to do that brought him joy and turned him into a living legend.

I lose all credibility if he’s the original early retiree, haha! I claim Ben Franklin was the Original Early Retiree on my website. But Buffett’s story is great and inspirational. It’s amazing how good work becomes when you don’t NEED to do it.

I had never heard this before, it’s a good thing he didn’t not only for his friends and family but for the millions he has helped (and continues to help) with his massive donations to The Gates Foundation.

Thanks for sharing the piece, J$. I hadn’t come across it before, and will be sure to add it to my reading list right now. Buffett is definintely a source of inspiration for those of us looking to combine an entrepreneurial spirit with financial security.

The concept of early retirement means doing what you love, and doing it on your own terms. If you love what you are doing, you never really have to work a day in your life. This is how Buffett managed to “work” 70 hours per week for 70 years, and earn the returns and reputation that have made him so well known to everyone!

Thank goodness he didn’t retire early or we wouldn’t have him as the investing guru that he is! Obviously, no one invests like Mr Buffett, but his wisdom in regards to the market and investing as a whole is what has driven many of us to success. I only have a few individual stocks (BRKb being one of them) but his advice to his family after his passing is the FI standard – index funds. Warren Buffett may not be my grandpa but I consider him mine just the same. :) I hope he sticks around long enough for the annual meeting next year!!

I think this is the most exciting part to me since we left the 9-5 18 months ago. We get to just do stuff we love. Some of it, some people might see as work. But the line between our “work” and our “life” and our “hobbies” is really really blurry. We are just doing what we love. I think when you have the freedom to do that like Buffet did, we can make our best contribution to the world.

I never heard this before and it makes me like him even more! When I retired last year, going to his annual meeting was on my list of to do’s so I bought 10 shares (of B) and we’re off to Omaha in a couple of weeks. I’ll have two extra credentials if you want to join us :)

I love this on so many levels. I’m someone who is very skeptical about ditching your day job to follow a passion (I’ve tried it and it doesn’t work well). What you’ve underscored about warren is the right way to engage in passions: Do work that excites you, but don’t assume it’s going to support you.

I would agree he is one of the first ‘early retirees’. For me the definition is freedom. He had the freedom, did something he loved, and so why would be stop working now? It was his creation on his terms, he may slow down, but why stop?

Wow, thinking like this is fascinating. I am late to the ‘Early Retirement Game’. And with less time left, and a large family, my best effort will get me out of the rat race only a handful of years earlier. So, now that my finances are more on auto-pilot than they have been, I need to focus on something that I would not ‘retire’ from, and I need to do that!

What that quote . . . idle hands . . . ? Human beings are radically irrational . . . even way back when we were living in caves . . . and some would say (me included) that the more complex the world becomes, the more irrational we become. Our choices make absolutely no clear and lasting sense BECAUSE our reasoning changes rapidly (and often in very contradictory ways). I think this is one of the things that makes saving so hard to do nowadays. It just doesn’t fit with contemporary human behavior . . . For me, the challenge (the older I get) is maintaining attention on retirement planning and saving, not the actual coming up with the money to save . . .

J, I’ve told you before – I’m always ready to invest in the J Money fund. As to bitching, not in my nature :). (Btw, I watched Iron Fist and the did refer to J Money and the ‘redesigned’ dollar. I played it several time just to make sure.)

Very cool perspective. I have mixed feelings about Buffet and his business, but I strongly respect the image he promotes to others. The concept of living within your means and not chasing every new bright shining object is important and powerful.

Great post. The 10% rule was definitely more doable back then given the interest rate and dividend yield environment. Would highly recommend anyone interested in picking individual stocks read The Intelegent Investor. Graham is the man and we studied him not stop in school.

Nice share. Warren simply took the jump and said – worst case, it doesn’t work and I’ll still be fine. Best case – we have the time of our lives doing what we love. And yep – he’s doing just that. Also funny that he grew his assets pretty quickly and knew that it didn’t matter, that no matter what – he would know what to do to be financially “OK”. Nice quick synopsis.

Thanks for sharing this – it comes in the best possible time for me!
Warren Buffett is inspiring in so many ways. If you think of it, everything he does makes perfect sense – living in a low-cost city, living in the same house for almost all his life, choosing what he likes doing instead of the ‘secure income’ and so on, and so on.
It’s as if he never aimed at becoming the world’s badass investor, he just followed his bliss.

Warren is a money machine. I don’t really admire his life. He has no hobbies or interests outside of investing! The guy is boring as hell. He’s not a fan of travel, eats the same thing every day, and generally doesn’t seem to live an exciting life (minus the $60 billion of course).

Warren Buffet has the most inspirational journey for all entrepreneurs to learn from. It’s really all binary with him. He used all the basic financial foundations to grow and he’s still doing so at scale. I wish he was blogging when he started so we could follow him instead of after the fact.

Love reading anything by Buffet. It is ultimately all informational/ educational, entertaining, and very easy to relate to. Anytime you are able to read for enjoyment as well as education at the same time will help you in the long run.

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